Wednesday, April 27, 2011

"Black hole" in Harper's imagination...needs voter rejection

By Carol Goar, Toronto Star, April 26, 2011Harper is right on three counts. There are economic storm clouds on the horizon. The opposition parties would seek to govern collaboratively if the Conservatives lost the confidence of Parliament. And we may have to endure a few more minority governments before a stalemate-breaking leader emerges. We have coped with far bigger problems than these.The only “black hole” that exists is in Harper’s imagination. There is no reason to vote in fear
Ms Goar makes a substantial case against Harper's spectre of armageddon, in the event that HE does not win a majority government on Monday next.
In fact, there is also a case to be made that the NDP surge, starting in Quebec and apparently catching on elsewhere, is a direct voter response to Harper's fear mongering. It is not only in physics that "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Harper has so overplayed his hand in so many ways:

by denying his contempt of parliament ruling by the Speaker and the vote by a House Committee

by refusing to provide accounting for the F-35 Fighter Jets (and for refusing even to justify their purchase)

by over-estimating the need for excessive prison construction, based on a complete distortion of the crime rate direction (it is falling not rising)

by over-estimating his government's role in Canada's recovery; it is the stability of the banking system, plus the stron safety net, plus Canadians willingness to tighten our belts, without foreclosing on some spending that helped to cope with turbulence following the 2008 disaster, not the Harper government response

by over-reacting to the Ignatieff leadership with character assassination advertising, just as he did to Stephane Dion before Ignatieff

by holding as his principle political objective (as Lawrence Martin constantly reminds us in the Globe and Mail) the total destruction of the Liberal Party, rather than the appropriate gtovernance of the whole country, thereby making his personal agenda trump the national agenda

by refusing to come clean on the Auditor General's report on cost accounting for the G8-G20

by refusing to come clean on the Canadian involvement in prisoner detention in Afghanistan, not to mention the "black eye" of the most recent prison break by some 450-500 Afghan detainees, with the obvious complicity of their guards, since the prisoners had keys to their own cells

by refusing to integrate the proposals of the opposition parties into the latest budget, and steadfastly proposing to re-introduce the bill unchanged immediately after May 2

by constantly crying "wolf" about anything other than a Conservative majority....

Little wonder young people who have never voted before, are taking their civic duty seriously.
Little wonder that the numbers of voters who showed up at Advance Polls over the last three days is up some 34% over 2008, and the average Advance Polling results.
Little wonder that, rather than lie down to the Harper "vision" of a new Canada, voters, including several websites dedicated to the rejection of a Harper government, are waking up to their own power to deny Harper the very majority he claims Canada must have to "survive" and we will all be watching those results as closely as last night's Montreal Canadiens-Boston Bruins clash in game six (Montreal 2-Boston 1).
Only difference, Monday's elections results could spell the end of Harper's leadership of the Conservative party (as well as that of Michael Ignatieff of the Liberal Party, if his party's slippage continues), and a new direction for the country.